You're late for tea!
by AnadoraBlack
Summary: Emma thought he had died. Or that, at least, he had stayed on the other side of the Looking Glass. But, as she's starting to make her life right, she starts to understand he never left her. And that's how it began. Damn hormones!


_A/N: Oh yes I've watched OUAT on a row. Oh yes I've fallen head of heels for Rumple (what a man). But what held me at gunpoint was Jefferson's awseomeness. If you knew me better you'd know...no matter who's playing the Mad Hatter, I'm going to fantacize about him. That's kind of...how I act. ^^_**  
**

_Hope you like this, kind of popped out of my mind._

_I shall make a longer OUAT fanfic but for now, you'll have to survive with this. Cheers!_

* * *

**You're late for tea!**

* * *

Emma tried to protect Henry when the purple smoke took over Storybrooke. But there was no need.

When everything was gone, nothing had harmed anyone.

Except...

"Mom?"

She turned her gaze to her son's face, his so cute smile spreading on it. She couldn't help but return the favour.

"Yeah, kid?"

"I think magic is back."

She chuckled and stroke his hair. "And what makes you believe that?"

He pointed his head behind her. She turned around.

And nearly fell down again.

The mother superior had...shrank into...a blue fairy!

"Oh my...God!"

The little being fluttered its wings once or twice, and her voice started echoing around the hospital room. "Thank you, Emma, for saving us. Now everything is for the best."

She shrugged. "Except you're still here."

"But at least we have our memories back. That is a good thing."

Emma sighed big time and turned to Henry again.

"So, kid, what about...go and find your grand-parents, eh?"

Well, that was going to be awkward.

* * *

"Emma, no need to worry, really, you are still our sheriff. We'll need it more than anything now that...everything's back to...normal."

She beamed to the cricket before her. "Thanks, Arch-Jiminy, but I-"

"No refusal. You saved us all. You have to stay. And besides, all of us fairytale characters aren't good. You'll have work to do."

Henry squeezed her hand. "And the Evil Queen's still out there."

She sighed. "Yeah, yeah, she is. Unfortunately."

"Come on, Emma, please?"

She nearly laughed at the sight. Jiminy Cricket begging her? That was something no one had ever read about! "Okay, I'll do it!"

"Yay!" Henry started bouncing around the office, got her sheriff badge and pushed it onto her belt. "Right. Now you're officially back."

She smiled at the sight her son offered. Now, with each and every fairytale character he's read about back to life, he was clearly the happiest kid on Earth.

Her task was done.

* * *

"I told you no, Mr Gold, I do not deal with you, especially now that you're back into freak mode!"

The golden skinned man, back into his favourite leather boots, waved his hands in the air. "Told you to call me by me name, dearie!"

She shrugged. "Rumplestiltskin isn't really some name I'd gladly repeat a thousand times a day. Or do you prefer I call you Rumple?"

He seemed to ponder, and opened his mouth to speak.

"Oh no, you leave the woman alone, love. I told you, no deals until they are needed!"

Emma titled her head to see past the imp's head, and saw Belle, wearing a plain blue dress that highlighted her eyes.

Rumplestiltskin sighed. "Alright. Can't say no to that woman." He mumbled.

Emma chuckled and thanked Belle with a nod. "Now, if you don't mind, gotta go back to my kid."

But as soon as she had her hand on the handle, the Beast made her stop.

"Oi, dearie, tell me, have you seen the stalker yet?"

She turned on her heels. "The _stalker_? And who might that be?"

He tutted. "Every information comes with a price, dearie!"

Belle came to him and slapped his shoulder. "Stop that!" Then she turned to Emma. "We noticed a man around your office, he's often there in the morning. Tall, long grey coat, short dark brown hair, dark blue scarf?"

Every piece of description started to light something deep within Emma.

"Oh, _shit_!"

And she exited the pawn shop.

* * *

As she walked back to her office, Emma started to seriously freak out. Wasn't he supposed to be dead? He fell off the window, and there was no way on Earth he'd have survived! And, didn't he tell her he wanted to go home, not come back from it?

In her hurry, she nearly stumbled across her father's path.

"Hey, Emma, sweetie, watch your steps!"

She looked up into James' face. "Sorry...uh..." He smiled as if to say 'never mind' and she felt extremely grateful. "I was...thinking about something."

"Something that bothers you? Have you talked to someone about it? It could be of some help."

She shook her head. "No, I don't need that. But...can you tell me...do you know someone who has a telescope?"

"You mean, apart from Rumplestiltskin?"

"Yeah, apart from..._him_."

"There could always be Gepetto. I think he had one for Pinocchio."

She started running back to where she came from, only farther, to Gepetto's workshop. "Thanks Dad!"

And James, shaking his head, started believing his daughter was more like her mother than he would have thought.

* * *

"Sorry, someone's in there?"

After a while, the white head of Gepetto appeared at the back door, his brown eyes lighting at the sight of her. "Ah, Princess Emma! How nice to see you!" His singing accent always rang something inside her, as a old song long forgotten. "Can I help you with something?"

"Yeah, I'm looking for a telescope, my father said you might have one."

He seemed thoughtful for a moment, and then waved his hand in the air. "Of course I have one. Pinocchio! Come over here, son, and bring your telescope with you!"

Emma looked towards the private door. "August's back with you?"

Gepetto smiled. "He is my son, after all."

She smiled. If there was something she understood in this world, that was parental love.

The wooden legs of August, soon followed by his now flesh head, entered the room, a long cylinder wrapped into his gloved hands.

"Hey, Emma."

"Hey, August. How are you? Better?"

"Healing. Slowly, but better by the day. At least now I can walk."

She smiled. He handed her the telescope. "Thanks. I'll give it back, just need to check something."

"There's no need. Pinocchio isn't a little boy anymore. He doesn't need his toys."

"Hey, they still are _mine_!"

Emma chuckled at the sight of August acting so childishly.

"What did the fairy tell you? No selfishness! Now go back to the house, you still have dishes to wash."

And with a long sigh, August left without a glance at Emma.

She quickly thanked Gepetto and almost ran back to the sheriff's office, the telescope firmly wrapped in her hands.

* * *

Not even bothering to open the lights, in case, she came to stand by the window, and pointed the telescope towards where she knew the hilltop stood, adjusting the lens.

She jumped when she met another eye, watching her just as intently.

Blue eyes as there could only be one pair in this world.

Emma cursed between her breath.

In front of her, so far ahead, a well-known head lifted from his own telescope, and bowed to her, that insufferable smirk of his plastered on his horribly handsome face.

"_Jefferson_..." She cursed again, and got out of the office, trying both to breathe normally and to keep from jumping into her car, heading to his house and kicking his butt.

She decided to give it the night.

* * *

"Mom, wake up, there's something for you at the door!"

Henry kept on jumping onto Emma's bed until she finally opened her eyes, rubbed them and slowly threw her legs over to get up. "What time is it, kid?"

"It's ten past! Come on, Snow wants to know who it is from!"

Emma jumped up. There was no way her mother was starting to check upon everything in her life. Not after 28 years of independence.

Once she got into the kitchen, she soon spotted two things. First, her parents welcomed her with smirks she really thought suspicious, and second, the door was wide open, revealing nothing else than a huge bouquet of red roses on the doorstep.

She cursed whomever had sent them, took the offending flowers, and came to lock herself up in her bedroom, away from her invading family.

* * *

After a while, Henry stopped pounding on the door to know whose it was.

The truth is, Emma had still to recover from the discovery.

Once she had settled the flowers down onto the window's edge, she saw that her hands were covered in what seemed like...paint?

And only one person could have painted roses red.

She grabbed the telescope she had left in her handbag and pointed it towards the hill.

But no one was at the window, for once.

She surprised herself when she felt disappointed.

After a moment of research, she finally found a little card tucked between the flowers.

"_Nice to see you're still with us, Princess._"

She glared at it as she would have done its writer.

Something in her stomach, however, unexpectedly fluttered at the sight of Jefferson's writing. As curved as the hats he made, and as shattered as his mind.

* * *

"Mom, why don't you tell me whose flowers it was? Was it someone dangerous? Was it the Queen's? Do we need to restart Operation Cobra?"

Emma stopped Henry just before the school's grids. Every kid had still lessons, and Snow White was still teaching. "Look, Henry, I-"

"Tell me whose it was, please! Won't tell anyone!"

She sighed but knew she'd eventually give in, so she knelt before her son and leaned in to whisper in his ear. "It was the Mad Hatter's."

"Awesome! You met him?"

"Actually, yes, I've met him. And you know his daughter. Paige?"

"Oh, you mean Grace? Yeah, I know, she told me as soon as we were back to school!"

"Great. Now, if she ever comes to invite you to her place, never agree, right?"

"Why, Mom? Grace is nice, she's a friend!"

"Not Grace the problem, kid. Her father is a little...deranged."

"Oh, he hasn't been like that always! It's just because of...you know..." He gestured his thumb on his throat, mimicking a beheading.

Emma sighed and bowed her head. "Yeah, whatever. You don't go there unless I agree, okay?"

"Promised!"

And he hurried up the stairs into school.

Emma felt the hair on the back on her neck rise, and she turned around.

Of course, the open town left quite a spot where she could almost guess the shape of Jefferson's house.

Even if she couldn't see him, she knew he could read on her lips.

"You bastard. I swear I'll get you."

And she could perfectly picture his chuckle.

* * *

"Emma, dear, this is the third time this week you receive a present, just tell us who it is!"

Emma rounded her mother and opened the bin to throw the box of chocolate caterpillars she had received that morning.

"No one, Snow, seriously, that's not important."

"But, if it is someone you don't like, why don't you just let us get it right for you?"

She turned to her dad, now having his arm wrapped around his wife's waist. "Seriously? You two? Prince James, who fought against Maleficent and lived? And you, Snow White, the woman who has killed half the Queen's guard without being harmed once? No, I don't think it wise."

"But tell us, at least, is it someone who's courting you?"

Emma breathed heavily. _Courting_ her? _Jefferson_? No way! No, he'd only want to enrage her, that's what he did. He wanted her to be so mad she'd go at him and slap him so hard his head would fall once again from his neck.

"No. At least, I don't think he is. Do not think about it, I'm gonna fix it."

James tried to argue, but his daughter was already out, car keys in hand, Glock in pocket.

"He's _definitely_ courting our daughter, whoever it is."

Snow chuckled at his side. "Oh yeah. And, you know what? I think he got under her skin."

* * *

Emma paced a thousand times in the woods, not far from the hilltop, wondering what to do.

First the roses. To tell her he had seen her in the telescope, for sure. He wanted to make sure she didn't think he had been a delusion.

Then the stuffed bunny in a waistcoat. She had given it to Henry, but wasn't it intended to him in the first place? As if...Jefferson wanted to give her son a gift?

No. She shook her head at the idea. That was ridiculous. Jefferson was mad. He had abducted her and Mary-Margaret – when Snow was still only that – and threatened her with a gun. He had drugged her.

And still.

At the thought of his arms catching her as she fell under the tea drug, all of Emma's body was shuddering.

How sick was it? Being abducted by a madman and finding him attractive? Nearly wanting to go up there and do non-Christian things with him just for a couple of flowers?

Emma hated herself and her hormones.

No, she hated herself. Her hormones were just a backfire. Stockholm Syndrome wasn't hormone driven. It was her mind, her sick mind.

She kicked a branch and walked back to where her car was parked.

Heading back into town.

* * *

By the time the fourth present – a cake on which was written 'eat me' – arrived, Emma's mind was a total mess. She couldn't even make a pace without feeling his eyes on her. That was sickening.

Of course she had looked through the telescope a couple of times more. But never saw him. The empty spot at his window made it even more difficult not to think about him.

So she decided to get on with it.

Confront the bastard and know what he wanted from her.

Yeah. After all, she was the Saviour. She could do anything.

* * *

_Knock knock knock_.

Emma's heart started beating so loudly she thought it echoed around the forest.

But Jefferson didn't answer the door.

His daughter did.

Grace's beautiful brown hair welcomed her, as did her flashing smile, so alike her father's.

"Hello, Emma! Do you want to come in?"

Emma's eyes widened. Grace hadn't even asked what she was doing here?

"Papa, Emma has arrived! Told you she'd come!"

She hadn't the time to ask her about that statement until the man himself peeked from the living-room's door.

At the sight of his messy brown hair, his piercing blue eyes, and his scarred neck, Emma felt as if her heart might explode. Oh dear, fucking hormones!

"Emma, how nice of you to come. You're late for tea, you know?"

She managed a smile and followed Grace into the mansion.

As on cue, the table hosted three cups of tea. Two of which were full while one was highly handicapped.

"We started without you, sorry. Papa kept on saying you wouldn't come, but I knew you would." Grace came to sit by the still untouched cup and took a sip.

Emma looked around, but her host had disappeared. She sat herself in front of Grace and took a sip of the boiling brew. It was far better than the last one she had tasted in this house, and she guessed it was Grace's favourite, seeing how she made every sip a miracle.

"Didn't expect you so early, so I haven't drugged the tea yet."

Emma looked back at Jefferson, his smirk back onto his lips, his eyes sending a silent message to his guest. 'I know why you're here.' Oh, she hated that.

"Papa, stop that joke! And I told you you should apologise!"

"Oh, but I will, Grace, my love. But everything in time."

And he turned onto his heels, disappearing once more into what she guessed was the kitchen.

"Excuse Papa, he doesn't really like having people at home." Grace swallowed the last bit of tea she had left in her cup and got up. "Sorry, Emma, I have to go. Henry's meeting me at the playground."

Emma narrowed her eyes at the little girl. Was she really only nine?

* * *

Once Grace had left, the tension in the empty room seemed to thicken. As if every cell of hers wanted to see others.

Emma got up and took the empty cups, heading for the kitchen.

Which was empty.

"Looking for someone?"

She spun around, but no one was there either.

"Jefferson, seriously, stop that."

"Stop _what_?"

She spun around again, but he was nowhere to be seen.

She sighed and headed back for the living-room, seeing the door wide open, as in an invite to get upstairs. She could clearly hear someone climbing them, now.

She nearly ran towards Jefferson's workshop.

And what she saw entering the room took her breath away.

* * *

Hats everywhere. And roses. Painted roses. And dark, blue, yellow, green, red, pink hats. Of all shapes and designs.

Emma would have wanted to laugh if her whole body wasn't aching in expectation.

Someone pushed a hat onto her head. I fitted perfectly.

She spun around and this time Jefferson was there.

They stared at each other for what seemed like hours.

His blue eyes sent lighting in her nerves, and she didn't know how she found the will to speak.

"Why have you sent those presents, Jefferson? Was it a sick message? Some way to remind me of what you have done?"

He huffed angrily. "Oh, so, you receive presents, and immediately think they aren't genuine. There must be a plot behind that. Tell me, what about August's presents? Do you throw them away too?"

Emma's eyes widened at the hint of jealousy she immediately spotted in that line. "August...they aren't for me. He's taken a fancy into my kid, that's all." Then she growled. "And I don't even _need_ to justify myself. You _abducted_ me, Jefferson, for fuck's sake!"

The man's gaze became a pit of fire at once. Walking ahead, Jefferson came to stand directly in front of Emma, his eyes – and lips – just a breath away from hers. "I did that to get my daughter back."

"But I still can't forgive."

"I haven't asked for forgiveness."

Emma's stomach started fluttering as soon as she understood the pending meaning in those words. "Then what do you want?"

"The same thing you want, Emma."

She sighed and pulled back from him and his intoxicating looks.

* * *

She didn't go far.

As soon as she reached her car, she heard the front door slam, and two strong arms wrapped themselves around her to spin her around.

And this time Jefferson didn't bother with words.

His warm full lips crashed onto Emma's, and her body took control.

Fuck the hormones.

Fuck the mind.

'I want that man. Oh god I want him so bad it hurts.'

Wrapping her arms around his neck, Emma pushed against him to deepen the kiss. Her tongue licked his lower lip, and he let her explore his mouth. She took a sick pleasure into being extremely slow, a sort of vengeance for the lust he had built inside of her that last week.

Jefferson groaned against her mouth, and Emma smiled into the kiss, before breaking it for air.

Two blue orbs met hers, only inches away, as if them too wanted to kiss each other.

"I think, Princess, that I might want to spend more time abducting you."

Emma panted and stole another quick kiss before smiling. "But I won't be easy to catch, Sir Hatter."

He smirked again, wrapped a strong arm around her waist and lifted her in his arms. "Let's see, shall we?"

Emma chuckled on their way back inside – and upstairs – and decided that her hormones might in fact not be damned. Not always. Not in that case.

Or she maybe was turning as crazy as he.

Never mind.

She went down the Rabbit Hole.


End file.
